We Only See What We Want To See
by Lyta Halifax
Summary: The storm came at last, demading a decision be made. A sacrifice be offered up. The choice, painful as it was, seemed so obvious at the time. But just when Max finally comes to terms with what happened and why, she understands too late the true lesson that she so carelessly missed the whole time... [Spoilers for Ep 5]


_**A/N: SPOILER ALERT! Do not read any further until you've finished all of Life Is Strange!**_

* * *

Max struggled to put on a brave face as the funeral service began. Tried her best to find serenity in this cold and seemingly heartless conclusion of events. She tried to tell herself, will herself to believe that despite the pain, the agony, this was the way it was meant to be.

The night before was another story.

" _I loved her, Kate!" she wailed. "I loved her so much. And I never got a chance to tell her! She went to her grave thinking I totally blew her off. That after five years, I didn't care anymore. She died alone, and afraid, in those last few seconds! All for the sake of this...this town that doesn't even fucking deserve her sacrifice! How can I carry on? How the hell am I supposed to go on living?!"_

Max broke down completely that night, ran to Kate's dorm room, and confided everything to the other girl, unable to keep her silence. How could she? It was like a physical, painful thing, a twisted, metallic shrapnel piercing her soul. How could she have borne witness to all of those pasts and futures that now never were, and be expected to never tell another living soul? How could she have made the choice she did, the one she didn't, and not...

...what was she looking for at that moment, fittingly on her knees before her friend? Forgiveness? Absolution?

Or simply an answer to why, a cognizant glimpse to the truth of how cruel the universe could be.

Certainly, she knew at least some of the answer. She now knew the measure of its ruthlessness better than most. But she still desperately needed to believe there were limits, that there was at least a small shred of compassion inherent to it all.

Kate, bless her, believed. Or at least she was kind enough not to doubt her. Encircled her with her arms, held her for as long as she needed to be.

 _"Chloe's in a better place now. I promise you, Max. I have to believe that she's with God. After what she did, what she accepted. The sacrifice she made. How could He not reward her? I know by acts alone, we are not redeemed, but I can't help but see Christ's love working through her."_

Max stared with dull, glassy eyes, numb, blank. Barely registering as Kate did what she did best: offer succor and emotional support. Max heard, but didn't perceieve, as Kate tried to explain.

" _...it might sound blasphemous, but Chloe showed that same sort of compassion, that same spark of divine inspiration, Max. And you...you demonstrated the most selfless love of all, honoring her choice. I can't even imagine what it took for you to carry it out. But I do know you have to do your best to uphold, give meaning to her sacrifice. Live, for the both of you."_

Kate was right, of course. Max understood it intellectually, but her heart was too hardened then to admit it. She didn't want to let the truth of those words into her being, not just yet.

It wasn't until the end of the funeral, when they were getting ready to lower the casket down into the grave, when she'd have only one last chance to say goodbye, that it struck her; pure, clean, crystallizing, like an ice dam giving way under the steady, patient weight of freezing water. The clouds may have hung heavy, the skies overcast, the wind softly chill, but she felt so warm inside.

 _Chloe was always doomed. I can see that now. But the universe gave her one last week of joy to make up for it. Gave us love, gave us hope. Showed us a future that we could have shared, and I think...maybe there's one out there. Just the two of us, together. And it gave her the chance to be a hero. To die as one, to accept and make that choice. It took the time to help her understand the seemingly senseless cruelty of her death, to face it with eyes wide open, and heart accepting._

At once, Max gave in, and started sobbing openly. She swiftly obeyed the instinctive urge to rise from her seat, and lay herself over the coffin, arms stretched out across it. She smiled through her tears, joy and sorrow intermingling as one, as she revealed in her epiphany.

 _Oh Kate! You were right! I understand it now! I see it so clearly! God, the Universe, Whatever you believe in, or want to call it...it wasn't cruelty. It didn't simply take Chloe away from me with cold, callous indifference. It was absolute love, kindness and compassion, in letting us have our time together. It gifted us both one last great adventure, the kind we always talked about when we were kids: Max and Chloe Save The World! And didn't we have the best week of our lives?_

She could say that now, even through all the pain, and the hell and the death and fear. Because it was all real, and it was all hers, alone. Maybe she was the only one left to remember it all, but no one could take it away from her. No one.

She could see it now: the aftermath of Chloe's death was a juggernaut, a barreling locomotive whose course would not be denied. The moral arc bending long but ultimately towards justice. Chloe might have died, but her death brought down Nathan and Mark Jefferson together, in one fell swoop. Even Sean Prescott would be hard pressed to survive the scandal, and with his family's corruptive presence diminished, perhaps Arcadia Bay could finally rise up again, bloom anew, like a weakened plant given water , fresh air and light at the last second.

"Thank you, Chloe." Max whispered. "Thank you...and I love you. I promise, I'm not going to let this destroy me. I'm going to live every day for you. Whatever good happens in this town now, you paid for it. _You._ By your blood. I won't let anyone forget that!"

She let go of the coffin. Wiped her face. Gratefully accepted the almost chokingly-tight hug that Kate gave her from behind.

"I'm ready, Kate." she breathed out. "I'm ready."

Max barely noticed at first, when the chill in the air swiftly plummeted downward, becoming like biting razor teeth. In the span of seconds, the wind scoured the trees, making them groan. She opened her eyes and gasped, agog in disbelief.

The storm.

The storm was coming.

It set upon them so fast, like a switch being flipped. In the span of her eyes being closed and then opening.

In the distance rumbled the very stuff of nightmares. A funnel cloud, growing sharply in speed and intensity. Heading their way from the open waters of the bay. Faster than anyone could hope to reasonably escape it.

"No!" Max croaked out. "But I...I stopped this."

"I _stopped_ this!" she wailed out.

The assembled mourners began to flee, moving away as fast as they could. The church was sturdy, its basement secure. There was hope in its protective vaults. They might yet weather out the oncoming disaster.

 _How can this been happening?!_

Max teetered at the splintered edge of sanity; to make peace with the situation only moments before, to have so quickly, whole-throatedly embraced the notion that Chloe's sacrifice was good and true and necessary, only to witness the fragile framework of her budding faith viciously smashed to dust.

It was too much to bear.

Kate pulled at her arm, screaming. "Max! Max, we have to make a run for it! We have to get to the church."

How could Max have been so wrong? There must have been some sign. Some small, yet incredibly critical detail that she overlooked. Something she was missing, that would have given her a Clue. A reason why she so utterly failed whatever test was set before her.

"Max!" Kate yelled again, in a desperate panic.

Her self-delusion fully ripped away from her eyes, and she finally grasped her mistake. The fatal error she'd made. The one she'd allowed Chloe to commit as well.

 _The vision of the storm...I...I saw it BEFORE I saved Chloe. What...what if the storm was always meant to come and destroy Arcadia Bay. What if the whole point of my gift was to warn, to save as many people as I could. Including and especially her!_

Where did Max go wrong?

"I saw only what I wanted to see. I wanted to believe I caused the storm. But..."

 _...the storm caused me!_

She turned to Kate. "Run! Go! I'm...leave me! Just go Kate! Just...just go! Please!"

The other girl was reluctant at first, tried to scream and argue over the loudening rush of the oncoming vortex. But then she saw the look in Max's eyes. Quickly, she realized that there was no point in them throwing both of their lives away.

One last, fierce hug. One stammering apology, and Kate took off at top speed to join the rest.

Max placed her hands lovingly upon the coffin. She was possessed, but only for a moment or two, of the urge to open it up. See her pale love's face one last time. To kiss those lips...

But it didn't really matter.

They'd be together again, soon enough. The way they should have been all along.

And in that, there was true compassion. She'd been given this last, final chance. Max had every intention of taking it.

She gazed up at the tornado; she could have sworn it was homing in on her, and her alone. The only fear left in her heart now was that borne of instinctive self-preservation. A wholly biochemical response, one that she could intellectually crush with little difficulty.

All that was left was for her to accept this...what would she call it?

Punishment?

Chastisement?

The consequences for failing to understand or heed the warning she was given, the hubris in tossing aside the precious opportunities she been gifted?

No. Compassion. A final act of compassion. At least, that was how she chose to see it, in her last moments of life.

If she'd only one wish left for the living, it's that the storm would simply take her, and spare the rest. But she realized too late: the universe was far more inscrutable than she could have possibly fathomed.

Trees and branches began to snap. Max squinted against the winds, struggling to keep her gaze steady and fixed upon her end, gripping onto the coffin for support.

"I'm ready, Chloe." she called out. "I'm ready!"

* * *

 ** _A/N:_** It's funny, I seem to have fallen into a pattern of writing at least two one-shots for every new chapter that comes out. At first, it was a way to encourage and nurture my hope at Pricefield. And then when Pricefield became real, it was a way to work out my anger and frustration with the growing dark tone in the game.

So yeah, I suppose this particular piece comes from a darker place, and who knows, maybe I will regret writing it, so quick and off the cuff. But I feel better for having done so. And I know I'm not alone in my growing belief that AB was ALWAYS doomed, and Max made a mistake in allowing Chloe to be sacrificed. **Theodur** was the first to most convincingly float the idea to me, and so I dedicate this story to him. But **Waves of Wind** came up with the notion roughly the same time as well.

Plus I salute **rowanred81** ; You held on to Chloe til the bitter end without even blinking. I hesitated, but I eventually followed suit.

Anyhow, I suspect in a few days, I will write a second one shot, dealing with the other ending. In an odd way, The Ever/Never Ending Sacrifice/Riotgrrls in Love is very close to having called the situation...but I want to keep that a fluff series, so I'll put my grimdark elsewhere when the time comes.

Wow. Well. We made it folks. We have come to the end of one hell of a journey. No more Life is Strange, no more cannon Max and Chloe. I am so thrilled to have taken it with you all! Max and Chloe have become positively iconic. I think we're going to be seeing them for years to come, one way or the other.


End file.
